NASA’s New Rocket Is Powerful Enough To Damage Nearby Buildings At Launch

Technicians prepare to fit a special fixture around an Orion capsule inside the high bay of the Operations & Checkout Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida in this undated handout photograph. The fixture is designed to enable precise pre-launch processing of the Orion spacecraft.
Orion will be the most advanced spacecraft ever designed and carry astronauts farther into space than ever before. It will sustain astronauts during space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space and emergency abort capability. Orion will be launched by NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), a heavy-lift rocket that will provide an entirely new capability for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit. Designed to be flexible for launching spacecraft for crew and cargo missions, SLS will enable new missions of exploration and expand human presence across the solar system. REUTERS/NASA/Handout (UNITED STATES - Tags: SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY) FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS. THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. IT IS DISTRIBUTED, EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS - RTR3BRLO

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You can’t launch a rocket without breaking a few sound barriers, and NASA’s new Space Launch System (SLS) — which will be the most powerful rocket the agency has ever built — is no exception.

The sound generated by a rocket and its corresponding force and pressure go far beyond the sound barriers that are broken as the rocket accelerates to a velocity capable of escaping Earth’s gravitational pull. From the roar of the enormous engines to the exhaust generated by the rocket’s thrust, every sonic consideration must be taken into account to ensure the acoustic vibrations generated during liftoff don’t damage nearby facilities or the launch vehicle itself.

According to engineers at NASA’s Stennis Space Center rocket engine test site in Mississippi, the frequencies generated at launch are focused in the low and mid range — the same ranges capable of destroying standing structures like buildings.

The record for the loudest test ever conducted at Stennis still belongs to the Saturn V rocket’s first-stage, which featured five engines capable of generating 7.5 million pounds of thrust and powered NASA’s Apollo program to the moon. That test rang in at 204 decibles.

Typical contemporary rockets generate around 100,000 to 650,000 pounds of thrust for an average decibel rating of about 195 at launch.

“The noise the engines and boosters generate is so great that it can impact the rocket, and the crew, during liftoff,” NASA Marshall Space Flight Center acoustic engineer Jeremy Kenny said in the report. “We have to ensure we have the proper suppression system to basically turn that noise down to a safe level.”